Alternate Name: Vidal, Eugene Luther GoreOccupation: American authorBorn: 1925-10-03 in West Point, New York

Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (pronounced /????r v??d??l/ or /v??dæl/; born October 3, 1925) is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter and political activist. Early in his career he wrote The City and the Pillar (1948), which outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality. He subsequently emerged as one of America's more important literary figures due to the enormous quantity and quality of work produced over the course of his career, including novels, essays, plays, and short stories covering a wide variety of topics and eras. He also ran for political office twice and served as a longtime political critic.